Find The Tech Guyhttp://findthetechguy.com
The place for non-technical startup foundersSun, 01 Jan 2012 06:40:56 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2Where to Find a Co-founderhttp://findthetechguy.com/where-to-find-a-co-founder/
http://findthetechguy.com/where-to-find-a-co-founder/#commentsSun, 26 Jun 2011 17:34:54 +0000Hamzahttp://findthetechguy.com/?p=309 [ Read More ]]]>Below are a list of resources that you can use to help you find a co-founder for your startup. Ideally, you’d want to partner with someone that you already know, but that’s not always possible. If you’re still looking for a co-founder, this list is for you.

Online

http://founder2be.com Complete a profile about yourself, select criteria for your co-founder, such as location, skills, and availability. You can post ideas or browse other “founders to be”.

http://beta.startupweekend.org/ – participating in a startup weekend can help you find others who are interested in building a startup. Do hands-on work with other developers, marketers, designers, and product managers. (Worldwide)

http://launch48.com/ An in-person seed-camp like activity that brings both business and tech potential-founders together to build stuff and launch over a weekend.

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This is a tentative list of what we’ve compiled so far. If you have any others please contact me or leave a comment below. You can also try out our own free video course if you are a non-technical founder looking for a technical counterpart. You can also catch us on twitter

]]>http://findthetechguy.com/where-to-find-a-co-founder/feed/2List of Tech Incubators & Accelerators (Worldwide)http://findthetechguy.com/list-of-tech-incubators-accelerators-worldwide/
http://findthetechguy.com/list-of-tech-incubators-accelerators-worldwide/#commentsWed, 22 Jun 2011 21:01:41 +0000Hamzahttp://findthetechguy.com/?p=292 [ Read More ]]]>With the growth of startups in the world, there has also been a growth in tech incubators and accelerators designed to help these startups. These are valuable resources for startup founders that can provide extremely influential industry contacts, early funding, mentoring, office space, and a lot more depending on the program.

I’ve decided to compile a list of all the tech incubators & accelerators I could find out there. This list is not all-inclusive, but it is as close as I could get with the research I’ve done.

They are divided by country and for the most part, by city as well. Deadlines vary, some may have passed others may have not, take a look at the page for the details of each program. If you have any additions please comment!

]]>http://findthetechguy.com/list-of-tech-incubators-accelerators-worldwide/feed/0A Simple Guide to the Customer Development Modelhttp://findthetechguy.com/a-simple-guide-to-the-customer-development-model/
http://findthetechguy.com/a-simple-guide-to-the-customer-development-model/#commentsThu, 16 Jun 2011 07:29:26 +0000Hamzahttp://findthetechguy.com/?p=275 [ Read More ]]]>I want to preface this by saying I’m no expert when it comes to the customer development model. I am quite the avid reader of great startup leaders such as Eric Ries and Steve Blank, and what I’ve attempted to do in this post is gather their ideas and thoughts in to a short and concise guide. This is so that readers who haven’t had much exposure to these ideas can gain a basic understand of this methodology. Then, it is up to them whether they want to pursue further knowledge by looking into more in-depth resources.

Anyone who is even slightly involved in the startup world has, no doubt, heard this term thrown around sometime or another. It is the tried and tested way to develop a startup from the ground up, but what does it even mean?

The Customer Development Model was only recently given a “name”, but it’s fundamental concept is timeless: don’t hypothesize everything about your business/product on your own, talk to prospective customers and develop an approach that they are interested in.

The ‘traditional’ way to approaching business is the “Product Development Model”. It starts with a product idea followed by months of building to deliver it to the public. Every feature is planned to a tee within the company’s own building, the launch date has been set on the calendar, and shipping the product on this date is the most important goal. Customer feedback is cool—but it is not the main focus.

The problem with this traditional approach is that it assumes your original hypothesis and business model is completely sound. It assumes that once it is built, the people will come. But do they even want your product?

“Build and they will come’ is not a strategy, it’s a prayer.” – Steve Blank

Often times startup founders work tirelessly to build their product only to realize that people really aren’t interested. Their original hypothesis was wrong—and now they are stuck with loss of time, money, and an undesirable product.
Following the customer development model ensures that this doesn’t happen. It is a model that was developed to prevent founders from wasting time building an undesirable product or service, and to instead test hypotheses often until a “winner” is found.

“Startups don’t fail because they lack a product; they fail because they lack customers and a profitable business model.”
– Steve Blank

Now that you understand what the customer development model is, it is important to learn the process behind discovering a product . Steve Blank breaks down the model in to four steps:

Customer Discovery is finding people who will pay you to solve a problem for them. This process involves narrowing your focus to a target audience, finding your target audience’s top problems, and understanding how much they would be willing to pay for a solution to it.

Customer Validation is experimenting different products with your customers. This part will take the longest and often goes back and forth with the Customer Discovery step. Try new products, try them on new customers, ship early, and ship often. Don’t get too attached to one vision, simply keep building until you find a repeatable sales process.

Customer Creation naturally comes after “Customer Valdiation”. Once you’ve found a product/service that there is a demand for and has proof of sales, you grow the few customers you currently have and make many. This is when you narrow your vision and stick to a product.

Company Building is pretty self-explanatory. Basically, you bring your product to the mainstream and making a company last in the long run.

When it all comes down to it, my take away from the Customer Development Model is: get your business out of your head! Talk about your ideas with prospective customers, friends, anyone who can offer good, quality insight. Then test it out multiple times! Don’t contain everything in your head, because many times, the one hypothesis that you planned out to the very minute detail may not be as big of a hit as you once though it would. You want to find that out early.

“Customer Development starts by testing your hypotheses outside the building. Not in planning meetings, not in writing multiple pages of nicely formatted Marketing Requirements Documents, but by getting laughed at, ignored, thrown out and educated by potential customers as you listen to their needs and test the fundamental hypotheses of your business.” -another Steve Blank quote

In the next installment, I will talk about my own experiences using the Customer Development Model with my previous startup ventures. Also, to get a more in-depth look at the Customer Development Model from a true expert, I encourage you to check out Steve Blank’s book: The Four Steps to the Epiphany

]]>http://findthetechguy.com/a-simple-guide-to-the-customer-development-model/feed/0How I Found My Co-founder on Hacker Newshttp://findthetechguy.com/how-i-found-my-co-founder-on-hacker-news/
http://findthetechguy.com/how-i-found-my-co-founder-on-hacker-news/#commentsWed, 01 Jun 2011 06:13:17 +0000Hamzahttp://findthetechguy.com/?p=258 [ Read More ]]]>I never thought I’d find a skilled programmer to work along side with in building my startup. Especially not someone on the Internet.

After dedicating months to trying to learn how to program to build my startup on my own, I finally came to the realization that it was something that wasn’t for me. I preferred to design and handle the business development side of things, and I really couldn’t see myself programming as a full-time commitment.

I needed someone who was just as passionate about programming as I was about designing and marketing. But who?

I really didn’t know anyone who could measure up to the task. I had friends who bragged about the websites they’d built only to realize they set up pre-made wordpress themes and edited a couple of minor details to personalize it (kind of like what this site is).

I tried friends of friends, but no one was up for it because of their personal situations and their own doubts. A lot of them were full-time developers working in their comfy jobs and they just didn’t have enough time to dedicate to the startup. I understood, but at the same time, I was frustrated because I wasn’t getting anywhere.

I was contemplating whether to just plow through some more Django lessons and just build the thing on my own, even though I didn’t enjoy it and was having so much difficulty. All I really wanted was for my idea to come to life, and I thought if that was what it had to come to, then so be it. I also didn’t have the money to spend on tech firms or freelancers, although that would’ve been a great move.

Through it all, I checked Hacker News religiously to get the latest insight and advice on topics related to programming and startups.

I continued learning but just couldn’t build anything remotely close to what I wanted to. I remember the night I was close to giving up, but before I went to bed I spilled all of my thoughts in to a blog post. I vented, complained, and attached a link to the mess of a website that I had built so far.

I ended the post with “If anyone would like to help me continue, just email me”. But who was I kidding? I had 2 or 3 followers of my blogs and they were just friends of mine.

I checked Hacker News before I went to bed that night, and had never dreamed of ever submitting to the site. I thought about it for a second.

I titled the submission “Why Programming Isn’t For Me”, and decided to throw it in. What was the worst that could happen, right?

I woke up the next morning with a massive amount of emails. My blog post had reached the front page, and now programmers were reaching out to me! It was crazy. Some offered straight up that they were available if I needed a technical cofounder and others encouraged me to continue to my efforts.

Through these emails, I developed an unlikely friendship with a programmer who was working in a similar field as me. He made a simple request: if he had any questions regarding business development, he could ask me, and in return I could ask him whatever I needed to about programming.

We were to be mentors of one another. I took up the offer.

Long story short, many phone calls and emails later, we met up and began working together on my original venture. By that time I had trusted him enough and considered him a friend. He was my cofounder, and I had actually found him at one of the most unlikely times and places. It was great though, to know that a strong community like that can really make things happen for a “nobody” like me.

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to follow us on twitter. If you want to learn more about finding technical co-founders I created a free video series to address this topic in more detail (or enter your email below)

And check out my just launched side-project while you’re at it: I teach you how to make apps

]]>http://findthetechguy.com/how-i-found-my-co-founder-on-hacker-news/feed/4Motivate Your Co-founderhttp://findthetechguy.com/motivate-your-co-founder/
http://findthetechguy.com/motivate-your-co-founder/#commentsSat, 28 May 2011 15:15:30 +0000Hamzahttp://findthetechguy.com/?p=195 [ Read More ]]]>It was a stormy night in California. We were a few months in to development and we still hadn’t launched yet.

The fire we had to continue developing our startup was beginning to die. The starting is always easy—two guys extremely excited to bring their vision to life. Once upon a time, we ate, slept, and dreamt our startup as we dedicated hours at a time to bringing it to fruition.

But as we got deeper and deeper in to it, doubt started to come in. Somewhere along the line, discussing usability and marketing strategies turned in to late night philosophical discussion: “Is all of this work really worth it?” “Will there be a reward at the end of this?”

Even worse, we were a non-tech/tech dynamic—meaning my cofounder was doing the bulk of the actual technical development while I was working on “other things”.

“Other things” is my way of saying: I felt useless. I could whip up a design and could dabble with simple HTML and CSS, but was too much of a novice to contribute to the back-end code. And unfortunately, at this point, most of the work that needed to be done heavily relied on the back-end.

The task rested on the shoulders of a talented, yet often drained technical cofounder. On some nights, motivation would be at an all time low because there was no one to pick up the slack with the coding or no one that could provide creative insight with the deeply technical aspects of the startup.

I had to do something. Not only to save the sanity of my technical partner, but also for the survival and growth of the company itself.

Of course, I wouldn’t be able to learn enough programming in this short time frame to contribute directly. So I focused on my strengths. I did a few different things, but this simple move was my personal favorite:

I asked my technical cofounder to set up a simple email opt-in form for people to sign up as beta users for our startup. Whenever anyone submitted their information, an email would be sent to both my tech cofounder and I to alert us of a new sign-up.

Although all we had was a simple coming soon page and a video, I began spreading the message far and wide. We both received our first “You have a new signup (beta user)!” email that day. Hundreds more piled in the next few days.

Signups were my new form of “motivation” currency. Every user that signed up made developing and launching the project more and more urgent. Whereas before we were the only two people excited to launch our startup, now hundreds of otherpeople wereexcited and waiting for us to launch.

This really boosted our motivation and lifted our spirits even on our worst days of development.

Anytime my cofounder needed a push—I’d bring in loads more signups, and anytime I needed a push, my cofounder rolled out a beautiful new feature in development.

This is just one example. The point is, though: never sit on the sidelines and let your cofounder do all of the work. A startup is so small that if there is one weak link, the entire startup can potentially crumble.

In your startup, everyone’s success is tied together. Your hard work will motivate your fellow cofounders work, so find a way to use your skills and talents to contribute to this success.

–
A lot of people have been asking how I found my technical cofounder (I found him online since I didn’t know any prior to meeting him). So I decided to make a few videos to explain the process. They are 100% free and I just hope they help. Enter your email to get the videos:

As much as I read from others, “launch early and iterate often”, there was something in my psyche that told me: “this launch must be as perfect as possible”.

My cofounder and I would debate for weeks on the in the intricacies of what we needed before launching in to our private beta. This was the first serious venture either of us had ever undertaken, so we wanted to launch with a “bang”.

We had a plan and clear vision originally, but throughout development we kept thinking: what if we add this? Wouldn’t it be better if we threw this feature in? In fact, my cofounder and I debated so much on ideas that by the end of our long arguments we compromised for a vision that was completely different from the original plan.

Now, this isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but did our users even want this change? Well, we don’t know because we kept changing the vision before we even had users. We hypothesized in our minds what our users wanted before we even launched and saw their response—it was ridiculous to say the least. But alas, we were both naive first time founders.

The sad part? We planned, plotted, and researched to the point that we never got to launch the venture. Some outside circumstances (unrelated to the business) had made continuing the venture together close to impossible, and guess what? We never even got to release it.

The point is though, we had months to develop the product and we were so close to releasing. But we didn’t.

There are the obviously many reasons to launch early. From not knowing exactly what users want to gaining traction early on, but there’s an even more inspiring reasons, for me.

Launch early because you never know what can happen. It’s unfortunate that a well-developed vision and a promising team can’t launch their startup within a reasonable timeframe solely because they analyze the details to death.

My fear is that there are startup founders in similar positions as I was. And I really hope you and your team can stop the hypothesizing, stop the excessive blog reading, and just please, launch.

It’d be cool if you could follow us on twitter.
–
A lot of people have been asking how I found my technical cofounder (I found him online since I didn’t know any prior to meeting him). So I decided to make a few videos to explain the process. They are 100% free and I just hope they help. Enter your email to get the videos:

]]>http://findthetechguy.com/please-launch/feed/2Non-Tech Founders: What Would You Like To See?http://findthetechguy.com/non-tech-founders-what-would-you-like-to-see/
http://findthetechguy.com/non-tech-founders-what-would-you-like-to-see/#commentsThu, 26 May 2011 00:01:41 +0000Hamzahttp://findthetechguy.com/?p=103 [ Read More ]]]>In a lot of technical startups, great non-technical founders (or co-founders) are hard to find.

We all know that there are far too many “idea guys” out there that don’t know what it truly takes to run a startup. At the same time though, there are many highly-qualified non-technical people out there that can bring a lot to the table but never get an opportunity because of their lack of technical skill.

It’s for this reason that I wanted to create a resource to make the nontechnical founder more productive and useful than ever before. A place that they can come to for tips, insight, and strategic advice to not only become successful business leaders, but to also gel better within their own startups which are very much technology oriented.

So I ask you, as a non-technical founder, what would you like to see? If you could have a place that gives you insight on how to become a better nontechnical founder, what would you want to learn? Here are just a few ideas I’ve had:

But what I really want to know is what you want to see. I am, by no means, an expert in these topics, and that’s why I’m willing to find experts on these topics to bring the most information and value to you. So please email me or comment and let me know:

As a nontechnical founder, what would you like to see?

–
A lot of people have been asking how I found my technical cofounder (I found him online since I didn’t know any prior to meeting him). So I decided to make a few videos to explain the process. They are 100% free and I just hope they help. Enter your email to get the videos:

]]>http://findthetechguy.com/non-tech-founders-what-would-you-like-to-see/feed/3The Non-Programmer’s Dilemmahttp://findthetechguy.com/the-non-programmer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/
http://findthetechguy.com/the-non-programmer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/#commentsTue, 24 May 2011 00:38:43 +0000Hamzahttp://findthetechguy.com/?p=97 [ Read More ]]]>Non-programmers wanting to create a startup face a major problem: they can’t program. Naturally, you’re going to need to find someone to work with. As a “non-programmer” (well, I like to call myself the biz/dev guy), I’ve had major trouble proving my worth to programmers & web developers in the past. Here are two of the major dilemmas that I fell in to when trying to recruit a programmers and web developers to collaborate on ideas with. Learn from them.

Dilemma #1: We think an idea is enough

Too many inexperienced “biz-guys” believe that the idea is king, and once you have an idea, it just needs to be implemented by some programmers. This is an extremely unhealthy and simplistic way of looking at things that will probably lead to disaster. The major hazard with this way of thinking is that the non-programmer will often see themselves as the one who invented the “genius idea” and now they can kick back and let the programmer do the tedious work. Now, you can do this if you have money to shell out to freelancers, but a lot of us are trying to find partners rather than workers; and if you’d like to do that, you need to offer much more. An idea definitely won’t be enough to get a programmer to sit down and dedicate time to working with you (especially if you’re paying in equity).

Whether it’s clever marketing technique, stellar leadership ability, or great communication skills, you need to find your talents and prove them. Good ideas are extremely important, but you need to have more than that to attract programmers and web developers to work along side you.

Dilemma #2: We don’t know any programmers

This was a big one for me. How was I supposed to find programmers who wanted to work with me for equity rather than cash when I didn’t have any programmer friends or acquaintances? By the time I realized that I had valuable skills, couldn’t completely code my web app by myself, and was truly determined about my vision, I had the most trouble finding good programmers who wanted to work with me.

I worked on this aspect a lot, and a lot of friends have said that I’ve mastered the ‘art’ of attracting programmers. To be honest with you, it’s no art at all and is a more-so effective communication and marketing yourself well. Assuming you’ll be the business-end of your startup one day, you’ll need to learn good communication skills, and attracting programmers and web developers is a lot like attracting customers. You offer them true value that’s hard to refuse, follow up on your promises, and prove yourself when the time comes.

There are many more dilemmas non-programmers fall in to when creating startups. The truth is, there are a lot of non-programmers out there who think they can make some easy cash being a startup entrepreneur. Many talented programmers have been approached by these shady ‘entrepreneurs’ and are weary of guys who claim to have great ideas. So as a non-programmer, your facing a major uphill battle when trying to find programmers to partner with. Ultimately, my advice to you is to differentiate yourself from them. You need to offer more.

–
A lot of people have been asking how I found my technical cofounder (I found him online since I didn’t know any prior to meeting him). So I decided to make a few videos to explain the process. They are 100% free and I just hope they help. Enter your email to get the videos:

]]>http://findthetechguy.com/the-non-programmer%e2%80%99s-dilemma/feed/0But What If They Steal My Idea?http://findthetechguy.com/but-what-if-they-steal-my-idea/
http://findthetechguy.com/but-what-if-they-steal-my-idea/#commentsSun, 22 May 2011 05:37:37 +0000Hamzahttp://findthetechguy.com/?p=77 [ Read More ]]]>I once believed I had an idea that could change my life and make me financially successful.

This idea was so “genius” that I couldn’t tell a soul. I had to keep it in, strategize, plan, and when the time was right, I’d have it all built and would release it to the public.

How naïve of me. First of all, I was a non-tech founder, and my failed attempts in learning how to program weren’t getting me too far. Clearly, I needed a partner. My fear was, however, that once I told a programmer about my idea, they would already know how to implement it and would steal it for themselves.

As I started befriending programmers and web developers and began pitching my idea to them, I realized something that I wouldn’t have anticipated before. I realized that the programmers I was interested in partnering with didn’t care too much about my “golden idea” but we’re much more interested in what I brought to the table. What kind of skills did I have? What kind of connections did I have? What was my reason for pursuing what I was doing? What did I know about my industry? The idea was definitely a plus for finding programmers (and eventually investors), but ultimately, you need to reach a level where YOU as a person are valuable, independent of your idea. In other words—I needed to get myself and others to truly believe that this idea couldn’t reach its full potential unless I was a part of the team.

So what if they steal your idea? Well, the world is eventually going to know about your idea once you start to market it. If your idea is good enough, competitors will pop and try to crush you. But remember, people can steal ideas, but they can’t steal you. They can’t steal your style, your creativity, and your drive to succeed. That is what should make your business different.

–
A lot of people have been asking how I found my technical cofounder (I found him online since I didn’t know any prior to meeting him). So I decided to make a few videos to explain the process. They are 100% free and I just hope they help. Enter your email to get the videos: